“Even if it’s something nice,” Xue Ziye said coldly, her face ashen, “you can still make a mistake if you say too much.”
Huo Zhanbai stared at her, speechless. His lips twitched as if he wanted to say something, but his eyelids finally closed heavily and irresistibly.
"Sigh..." Looking at the unconscious injured man, she let out a clear sigh for the first time, bent down to cover him with a blanket, and murmured, "Eight years, fighting so desperately... but was it worth it?"
She could tell from the moment the two of them arrived at Medicine Master Valley with their child eight years ago:
That woman actually hated him.
Was it worth it? She had always wanted to ask this question, but he always interrupted her with his lazy teasing, leaving her unable to utter a word. Such a clever person, perhaps he himself already knew it from the beginning.
When we left the Winter Mansion, it was already past midnight.
Greenie and the others had already been sent to Autumn Garden. All the other maids in the pavilion had gone to sleep. She didn't disturb them, so she carried a lantern and slowly walked along the cold spring by herself.
Mohe in the far north is cold year-round. However, hot springs gush forth in Medicine Master Valley, so the ancestor who came here to live in seclusion adapted to the local conditions and set up four pavilions for spring, summer, autumn, and winter, according to the different ground temperatures, to grow various rare herbs. However, the Winter Pavilion, which is closer to the valley entrance, is still quite cold, and she rarely comes here.
She shivered slightly as the wind blew from Mohe.
The cold moon hung overhead, illuminating the valley full of white snow, with the faint fragrance of white plum blossoms floating in the air.
Unbeknownst to her, she had followed the cold spring to the edge of the still lake. This lake was formed by the confluence of cold and hot springs, so steam rose from one half of the surface while the other half was covered with thick ice.
That uncontrollable longing surged forth once more, and she could no longer resist. She grabbed a lantern and ran towards the lake. Stepping on the ice, she reached the center of the lake, placed the lantern aside, and, trembling, bent down deeply, gazing intently beneath the ice: the person was still sleeping peacefully in the water, serene and pale, unchanged for over a decade.
Xuehuai... Xuehuai... Do you know? Today, someone mentioned you.
He said you must be very beautiful.
If you were alive today, you would be more handsome than all the men in the world, right?
Sadly, you always remained asleep beneath the ice, unresponsive no matter how I called you. I learned so much medicine and saved so many lives, yet I could not wake you.
She murmured to the frozen lake, tears finally streaming down her face.
Although her master had used medicine to calm and soothe her, and some of the more tragic memories had faded after more than a decade, she still remembered the despair of the Moga clan being slaughtered overnight and her being forced to jump into the icy river to escape.
The water in Mohe in December is cold enough to be deadly.
The killers pursued them from behind, wearing hideous masks and wielding blood-dripping swords. Xue Huai, holding her hand, fled frantically across the frozen Mohe River. Suddenly, the ice cracked open with a "crack," and a gigantic black maw swallowed them whole! In the instant before they fell, he pulled her tightly into his arms and drifted away with the undercurrent beneath the ice.
His heart was the only warmth in the icy water.
It has been twelve years since her master rescued her from Mohe, yet the bone-chilling cold still occasionally rises within her. Every snowy night, she would suddenly wake up, then frantically push open the door and rush out, running barefoot across the snow, trying to run back to that remote Moga village to find all the warmth she had left behind there.
However, after that bloody night, nothing remained. Including Xuehuai.
The person lying under the ice lay quietly, their face unchanged from years ago.
The sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy, bent over with his arms loosely clasped to his chest, floated gently in the cold water, fast asleep. She leaned over the ice and murmured to the sleeping figure:
Xuehuai, Xuehuai... when will you wake up?
If you don't wake up soon, I'll get old...
Not far away is the Summer Garden.
The maid on night duty rolled up the curtain and saw the woman lying on the ice in the middle of the lake under the cold moonlight. She sighed to her companion behind her, "Xiao Jing, look... the Valley Master is talking to that person under the ice again."
They were all orphans brought back by the young lady from the surrounding villages, some suffering from incurable diseases, others abandoned due to poverty—the people sealed beneath the ice had already existed since they arrived here. Granny Ning said: They were the people who drifted down the icy river to Medicine Master Valley with the young lady twelve years ago.
Back then, Liao Qingran, the former Valley Master of the Medicine Master Valley, rescued the girl who still had a sliver of warmth in her heart, while the boy had already become stiff. However, for more than a decade, the Valley Master always believed that if her medical skills were to improve a little more, she could awaken him from the ice.
"That person is actually very handsome." Xiaojing gazed at the shadow on the ice, somewhat bewildered.
However, her companion ignored her and focused her gaze on the west side of the lake. Suddenly, she exclaimed in surprise, "Look, what's going on... Autumn Garden, Autumn Garden is suddenly in an uproar? Quickly go and call Sister Frosty Red!"
In the Autumn Garden, the furniture inside the room was overturned and there were messy signs of a fight everywhere.
After six or seven sword strikes failed to touch the hem of the other's clothes, Greenie was at a loss for what to do. She held up her sword and gasped for breath: This person... was this person really seriously injured? How come he is so agile as soon as he wakes up?
Without even moving, the other person instantly moved to another corner of the room, holding a silver knife to Xiao Cheng's throat: "Go and call that woman over here, or I'll kill her."
Greenie stomped her foot, feeling her anger rising.
—I told Miss long ago not to bring this frozen snake back, and now look what's happened, it bit me as soon as it opened its eyes!
"Don't you have any conscience?" she stopped in her tracks and shouted angrily, "You ungrateful wretch!"
"I want you to go and call that woman over." The other person remained unmoved, and with a flick of his silver blade, drew a bloody gash on Xiao Cheng's neck. Xiao Cheng, unaware that it was just a shallow cut, screamed in terror and fainted.
"Where is the Valley Master?" Helpless, she turned to the maid beside her and winked, "Is she still at the Winter Pavilion? Go and let her know, and tell her to bring a few more people over!"
It would be best to bring that debt collector Huo Zhanbai over—he's the only one in this valley who can deal with this venomous snake.
However, the girl was oblivious. As soon as she pushed open the door, she suddenly exclaimed, "The Valley Master is there!"
Everyone was startled and turned to look outside—the snow had stopped, the moonlight was bright, and white mist rose from the lake, making it resemble a bright mirror. The woman in purple was lying on the ice, silently gazing at the lake below. Beside her stood a maid in red, none other than Frost Red, who had rushed over after being disturbed in the Winter Garden, and was reporting something to her.
She raised her head and slowly glanced in this direction.
Although they were so far apart, the hand holding the silver knife trembled slightly the instant it looked over.
Hidden in the shadows, Tong's pale face was expressionless, yet her heart trembled violently. What was happening... what was going on? From that distance, she couldn't even see a face clearly, yet she felt this way at a glance? Could it be... that this female healer had also practiced pupil techniques?
The intense pain in my head suddenly returned.
—It's possible that the mental exhaustion caused by overuse of the pupil technique led to this chronic headache.